Object serialization

From: Michael (f-boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-12-04 19:24:08

Prolog: If this has already been addressed, consider me sorry.

Is serialization of objects a problem worth addressing generally?  Are
there so many diverse goals in this area that they could not all be
reconciled?

http://unlikely.org/ped/ adds data types to otherwise typeless
database APIs.  (Presently that should read, "API": only Berkeley DB
is supported).  A substantial portion of this insubstantial library is
dedicated to turning objects in memory into a series of unsigned bytes
that collates properly (ie, in the same order that the in-memory
objects do).

http://unlikely.org/ped/src/include/ped/writer.h
http://unlikely.org/ped/src/include/ped/reader.h
and http://unlikely.org/ped/src/include/ped/deserialize.h
contain the code relevant to serialization.

I'll gladly relicense the relevant code and take the time to make it
Boost-worthy if it is of interest.  Or I'd be happy to contribute work
to a from-scratch effort.